The 66-year-old Hunt died at Griffin Hospital in Derby following a six-month battle with esophageal cancer about an hour before kickoff for Ansonia High School's traditional Thanksgiving football battle with Naugatuck. To Hunt, this was the biggest game of the year.

A wake will take place Sunday from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Church of the Assumption, 61 North Cliff Street. A Mass of Christian Burial will take place Monday at 9:30 a.m. in the church. Burial will be private.

"This is probably going to be one of the biggest funerals that Ansonia has seen," said Sharkey, who as a sophomore quarterbacked Ansonia to a last-second state championship victory over top-ranked New London in 1988. "I was talking to my wife today and we agreed it had to be at Assumption -- it's probably the only place that could hold the hundreds of people coming."

Hunt, who stood 6-feet-7-inches tall and weighed 275 pounds, was one of the state's biggest linemen in the early 1960s. From Ansonia he went on to Wichita State, where he was coached by Bill Parcells and Jimmy Johnson, two future NFL coaching legends. An injury to Hunt in 1970 may have saved him from being aboard the doomed Wichita flight that crashed, killing 31 players, staff members and boosters.

Hunt, who retired as Ansonia football coach in 2005, led the school to seven state championships in 11 title games

"When we practiced, it wasn't practice makes perfect, he preached perfect practice makes perfect," said Sharkey. "If we didn't run a play right, we did it over and over and over again."

He said the emphasis on doing things right, along with motivation and confidence Hunt showed in his players, carried over into his life and career.

Sharkey remembers that 1988 title game, walking into the locker room down 15-0 at halftime and expecting to get chewed out.

"I was thinking he was going to be very upset and very angry at us," said Sharkey, now a Derby resident. "I thought he was going to totally rip into me. But he didn't. He was the total opposite."

Sharkey said Hunt convinced the team they were better than New London, "that we still had a half and it was our game to win. He never doubted us."

Sharkey, who went on to become All-State as a running back his junior and senior year, can still rattle off the final four plays of the winning drive, including the purposely overthrown pass on third down he believes set up the New London defense.

"It was crystal clear he knew what he was doing," said Sharkey, who hit Dave D'Onofrio on a "slot out and up" with the last pass he ever threw for Ansonia.

Coughlin, who followed in his father Jack's shoes as an all-stater before going onto Stanford, remembers a lesson Hunt taught him as a junior in 1994.

"We were beating Seymour 21-0 in my junior year," said Coughlin, now a radio producer for ESPN. "Coach moved me from quarterback to wide receiver so he could give Luke Richmond some snaps. On the first play, Luke hits me with a 40-yard pass and I did a little celebrating."

The revelry ended with Coughlin got to the sideline.

"I got laid into," Coughlin recalls. "The whole 10 yards -- face in the face, hands on my jersey, telling me `Don't you ever do it again. This program is not about you. Don't you disrespect it. This is not how we do things in Ansonia.'"

"I never did it again," said Coughlin, who coaches receivers and defensive backs at Ansonia.

"Showboating was something Jack would not put up with," said John Sponheimer, an Ansonia attorney, Ansonia football coach and longtime friend of Hunt. "I often forgot how fast Jack could move until I saw him sprint down the sideline towards a celebrating player. He'd catch up with him around the 10-yard line, bend down and be nose-to-nose making sure (the player) understood that would never happen again."

Coughlin's father, Jack, was an all-state center who played on the same offensive line as Hunt during the 1960s. The two remained friends until Jack Coughlin died in 1994.

A few weeks later Steve Coughlin was outside painting the family home when Hunt appeared.

"He stopped and talked to me. He told me about my dad and how much he meant to him and how he would make sure I fulfilled my father's expectations," Coughlin said. "This was a guy who was my high school coach but always was 100 percent behind me."

Tedder, who played linebacker for Hunt from 2000-2004, said Hunt taught him discipline and "made me the person I am today." Tedder, who lives in Naugatuck, works as a claims adjuster for Connecticare in Farmington.

Even Bob Kelo, who spent years as Seymour High School's offensive coordinator, could never stay angry at Hunt despite usually being on the short end of the score.

"We'd scream at each other for two hours once a year on a Saturday afternoon and then he and (Paul Sponheimer, Seymour High School's longtime football coach and John Sponheimer's cousin) would go out and play a round of golf. ... The funny thing is, he was in Spoonie's wedding and Spoonie was in Jack's."

Hunt's family has asked that memorial contributions, rather than flowers, be made to the Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley, 28 Howard Avenue, Ansonia, CT 06401 or to Boys & Girls Village, 528 Wheelers Farm Road, Milford, CT 06461. The Spinelli-Ricciuti funeral home, 62 Beaver Street, is in charge of arrangements.